There was momentous news on the UC campus 75 years ago, Nov. 9, 1939. Professor Ernest Lawrence was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. It was the first Nobel to be won by a UC faculty member — foreshadowing a flood of top prizes to Berkeley campus, and other UC, professors that continues to this day — and the first Nobel won by someone on the faculty of a public university in the United States.

Lawrence was only 37 at the time of the award, living with his family at 111 Tamalpais Road. The Berkeley Daily Gazette described him as “Tall, blond, and rimless-spectacled,” noting that he could “easily be mistaken — and has been — for one of his own graduate students.”

Measure fails

That same week California voters turned down the so-called “Ham and Eggs” elderly pension initiative. The proposal, which would have guaranteed a modest weekly pension to those over 50, died beneath a storm of invective from business and conservative interests, including those in Berkeley.

“If this insane measure called ‘Ham and Eggs’ passes tomorrow it will be a black day in California’s history” the publisher of the Gazette editorialized on the front page on November 6. “Only ballots, not guesses, will end the menace of the monstrous dictatorship masked by the title of ‘Ham and Eggs’.”

Berkeley voters appeared to agree. Eighty percent of those who cast ballots locally voted “no,” totaling more than 35,000 against and only about 9,000 voters in support of the measure. In Alameda County, the vote averaged 2-1 against, which was closer to the statewide result. The Gazette crowed that Berkeley had voted more heavily against the measure than any other “comparable community” in the state.

Waterfront

Two developments that would shape the East Bay waterfront were in the news that week. The Berkeley City Council heard from an independent engineer who urged civic study of a plan to undertake proper sewage treatment at the bayshore. And Albany supported a proposal to build a racetrack on its waterfront.

Death sentence

On Nov. 9, the California Supreme Court upheld the death sentence conviction of Rodney Greig of Berkeley, the 23-year-old who stabbed to death 19-year-old Leona Vlught in the Oakland hills in December 1938.

Bears fall

On Nov. 4, 1939, UCLA defeated the Golden Bears 20-7 at the Los Angeles Coliseum. The unquestioned Bruin star of the game was African-American halfback Kenney Washington, who, the Gazette said, “figured in all phases of the scoring. He passed — he ran — he returned punts — he made shoestring tackles of California runners when scoring seemed imminent — he received a rising ovation when he left the battlefield.”

New Deal book

In early November 1939, Berkeley applied for a $700,000 Works Progress Administration grant to improve Aquatic Park, a proposal that was coupled with a plan to build a giant saltwater municipal swimming pool at the northern end of the park.

The swimming pool never came about, but Berkeley contains many tangible reminders of Rooseveltian “New Deal” money that showered down on our conservative community in the 1930s. From Berkeley High School to the Rose Garden, to the waterfront, to the old Printing Plant now being renovated into the new home of the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive on Center Street, useful structures and facilities testify to the success of public works programs during the Depression.

Historian Harvey Smith will give a talk on his new book, “Berkeley and the New Deal” at a free program from 2 to 4 p.m. Nov. 9 at the Berkeley History Center, 1931 Center St. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and singing.